Argentine Tango Lessons Can Help Develop Creativity

by Tango

If at first you wonder what Tango lessons have to do with this post – read to the end. Then click on the link below to watch the video. It is excellent (and funny too).

While checking out my Facebook feed today I decided to click on a video from TED.com shared by Daniela, a Tango teacher in Phoenix, AZ (thank you Daniela). Normally I am not all that keen on watching a 19 min video, yet this one kept my interest from the beginning until the end.

It was a talk by Sir Ken Robinson about a relationship between education and creativity (wouldn’t you think one promotes another?). Ken Robinson is a creativity expert, who “champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.” Luckily he doesn’t sound as formal as his official bio :)

I won’t re-tell you Ken’s talk (one of the smartest presentations I have heard), but I’ll say that I was pleasantly surprised by him using dance to support his points. Having done most types of partner dance before I came to focus on Argentine Tango, I couldn’t agree more with his comparison.

In my view authentic Argentine Tango is the perfect example of creativity – when we take classes or when we dance at parties. While there are many sides to Tango, which I plan to share with you in other posts, one of them is helping dancers develop and enhance their creative side.

Tango is an improvisational dance. It is made possible because every step, every movement should be led and followed. When there are no predefined sequences, only natural small elements, we can put them together in an infinite number of variations depending on music, making every dance unique and wonderfully surprising.

It doesn’t take long to learn to start doing it. By the end of our Beginner Tango course everyone is dancing in this way. This is creativity, this is freedom of expression…

P.S. When you take Tango classes with Tango Bohemia you can learn more that just a dance (should you wish so). And it’ll happen in a fun social atmosphere.

P.S.S. I also liked Rio Veradonir’s comment a bit below the video: Einstein could have written Robinson’s talk. All of Robinson’s main points were articulated at one time or another by Einstein.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
“Information is not knowledge.” ~ Albert Einstein
“The One thing that interferes with learning is education.” ~ Albert Einstein
“He who wasn’t mistaken never tried anything new.” ~ Albert Einstein
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” ~ Albert Einstein

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